Joao Antonio de Moraes

This study investigates, from an articulatory point of view, the extent
to which the different nasalization processes in Brazilian Portuguese
(BP) - phonemic, allophonic and coarticulatory - are the result of
phonological, language specific rules or a purely phonetic transitional
phenomenon between an oral vowel and a nasal consonant. The study
revealed that the magnitude of the velic gestures is similar in
phonemic and in allophonic nasalization, which suggests that both
processes are the result of the application of phonological nasalization
rules in BP. On the other hand, in coarticulatory nasalization the
degree of velic opening reached during the vowel is smaller,
suggesting that in this case we have a purely transitional,
coarticulatory phenomenon.